Monday, March 19, 2012

When Sandra and I talked about this trip, our Europe Tour if you like, we talked about bikes and roads (climbs mostly) because they’re things we love. But we also talked about the places we are going to see, the foods and the drinks, and of course the people we are going to meet.

I must say, perhaps not so much for Sandra for obvious reasons, that in just over two weeks, my time in Germany has already produced a great number of experiences and I can easily start ticking boxes on all of the above.

Staying with Sandra’s parents has a lot do with it. Their hospitality and purpose to make sure we have a good time is priceless. We get taken to places, we have lunches, we go to their local cafes, we drive their car and we talk weather and football during our nightly cheese & breads (and drinks) meals, before going to bed.

All I want to do is to wake up and start everything again, and I usually do that by taking a walk to the local bakery for fresh brötchen.

Our search for the motorhome took us on a few trips, also. It was a matter of surfing the net (I looked at the pictures and the numbers), finding something we liked, and could afford, contacting the sellers and planning the trip for a raining day, a rest day or for after the ride if we didn’t have to travel far.

We went to villages like Mittenwalde and Bernsdorf, we drove to Berlin and Dresden and we even travelled interstate, driving on different Autobahns to get to the small village of Schlüsselfeld in Bavaria. Ok, the motorhomes weren’t great but we found a Puma factory outlet.

The shopping was good but it wasn’t the highlight. What really made this trip were the undulating roads and the village we stayed in, Reichmannsdorf. Nice drive but I was trying to work out a plan to return with my bike even before we got to the village.

Reichmannsdorf is more than 700 years old, it has an inn which is also fairly old and it has a castle that has been the residence of one family for almost 300 years. We couldn’t get in the castle because “von” someone still resides in it but we had a fantastic dinner in the Schloβgasthof.

Home for the next night, a ride in the morning and we were off to Dresden in the afternoon to meet some of Sandra’s parents friends and to check another motorhome. Again, we didn’t buy it, we were happy learning more and more about them.

The evening in Dresden was something else. A palace, a walk around this old, once or twice destroyed town, another great meal (vegetarian this time) and some (window) shopping for beautiful German-made watches…

We managed to ride the next morning again and later we headed to Berlin, this time to have a look at what we thought was the best motorhome for us, so far. But that is a story for another post. Saturday and Sunday, we rode with our new friends and even managed to do the Hurberg climb again.

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Ride with Passion

Passion (from the Latin patior, meaning to suffer or to endure) is an emotion of feeling very strongly about a subject. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for anything and often requiring action. Passion often applies to lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity.